The Brad Rogers Show - Pilot
It was February 24, 1984, 8:55 AM, Western Standard Time. A new show was being introduced on WGBH, channel 2. 8:56 AM, I wake up from my bed. I turn on the TV and switch to channel 2. Funding credits for that show start to roll. "This program is brought to you by (yadda yadda) and funding from Corporation of Public Broadcasting and contributions from the viewers like you. Thank you." "You're welcome", I said. "This is a co-production between WGBH, WNET, WQED, KCET, WEDH and KCTS-" I MEAN FOR FUCKS SAKE, JUST START THE SHOW ALREADY. Then the show finally started, after all this agony. It had a generic intro, kind of like a combination of intros of Bill Nye The Science Guy, Magic School Bus and Arthur. Keep in mind what that funding credit just said, one of those co-producers, KCTS, did Bill Nye The Science Guy, so there might've been a nod or a homage, to the style of BNTSG's intro, in Brad Rogers Show's intro. "Here's your host, BRAAAAAAAD ROGEEEEEEEEEEERS!", the narrator shouted. I mean, wow, I didn't knew they wanted it to feel like a talk show or something. Back to the subject. There he was. Brad Rogers. He asked the audience typical questions and then they proceeded to interview couple of kids, then Brad had a sip of Coke, for whatever reason. Then, Brad accidentally pushed Coke off the desk, to the broken wire. A little boom was heard. Brad improvised and laughed, saying that it "looks like we're going out with a bang, eh?". Everyone laughed, especially me. Then, when Brad was trying to experiment with potatoes and wires, a child asked if he could try it himself. Brad said yes, but warned to be careful, or "woodly, boodly stuff would happen". I laughed, I don't know why. Then a child touched the potato and got electorcuted. The audience was in shock, and so was Brad. He accidentally let out curse words, like "fuck" and "holy shit". He apologized for it... and then... BOOM. The explosion cut out, screams were heard, and the episode was quickly pulled off the air. I was shocked. I just watched almost 37% of what would've been a 60 minute episode. That's 22 minutes. It was the worst 22 minutes I ever experienced. I cried, and my mom cheered me up. Then she made me pancakes and ice cream for breakfast. I don't know why, don't ask me. After the episode was suddenly taken off air and the show was suddenly cancelled, there were reports everywhere, about the fire, everyone in the studio was dead, because the doors were locked. That studio, burned to the ground, with all of those people inside, was called Crown Point Studios, just a bonus fact. PBS quickly put the episode in WGBH's so-called secret vault, because they didn't want to get blamed for the fire caused by a technical difficulty in that particular studio. The episode has been kept at WGBH's secret vault, since 1984, until the day when I have managed to break into WGBH's vault. Unfortunately, the audio quality is now terrible, video quality is something of Minecraft's full motion video cutscene, 3 frames a second, and the audio is so distorted, it may sound like auto-tuned, ear-rapingly loud and muffled noises. These VHS bar things are all over the place, you can't see the entire episode through them.